Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday the federal government squandered Social Security tax dollars paid into the system by working Americans for decades and now wants to make them pay for its mistakes.“I cannot imagine that we would ever want to say to seniors who have paid into a system for their entire working lives that we don’t care what happens to them,” Huckabee, in New Hampshire for the first time since April, told WMUR.com.Huckabee was among six candidates who spoke about affordable housing at a summit at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.Afterwards, the Republican told WMUR.com: “It is appalling. It is unacceptable that we would ever treat Social Security as though it is an entitlement or a welfare benefit. Nobody asked me whether I wanted to pay into Social Security or Medicare and I started working when I was 14 years old.“They took it out of my stinking paycheck every time, and they told me if they took it out that it would be there for me when I became 65,” he said.“Now they’re going to tell me when I get there, ‘Well, you’re going to have to work another 10 or 15 years.‘ Or they’re going to tell me, ‘You make too much money. We’re going to take it away from you altogether.’"Ohio Gov. John Kasich said last week that a New Hampshire resident would “get over” cuts to Social Security, as he has proposed.Huckabee did not directly comment on Kasich’s remark, but said, “This is an absolute absurdity. If Republicans want to make sure they lose absolutely every election, let’s go out there and tell people that we’re going to steal from them and lie to them and take Social Security benefits and cut them."“We need to protect not just the benefits, but also the integrity of our own government which made promises to people."“To tell people to get over it? Congress is about to get a pay raise in January. Social Security and Medicare recipients are about to get a gut punch. There’s no cost-of-living for them. The attitude of Washington has been, more soup for us, no soup for you.”Huckabee proposed growing the economy and changing how Social Security is funded. He noted that fewer people work for traditional paychecks and more people work “off the books.”“You decrease the number of people paying into the system, but you have 10,000 people a day who are retiring and getting into the system, so you have a larger funnel going out than the funnel that’s going in, and you don’t have to be an economist to understand that doesn’t work,” Huckabee said."The formula to fix it is to grow the economy, get people to work again, and make sure that everybody is paying in at the pay-in level. But let’s not scare people who have worked for 50 or 60 years and tell them you are going to pull the rug out from under them now that they’ve had all this money taken out of their paychecks."“This is an involuntary program,” Huckabee said. “It’s not welfare. People paid that money. It was their money out of their paychecks.“Don’t tell me now that you’re going to take it away from me because the government screwed up. I’d say to people in Congress, ‘You get over it. You get over the fact that you’ve screwed this country. You spent money you didn’t have. You took money from people and spent it on things that didn’t have to do with Social Security and Medicare.”

MANCHESTER, N.H. —

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday the federal government squandered Social Security tax dollars paid into the system by working Americans for decades and now wants to make them pay for its mistakes.

“I cannot imagine that we would ever want to say to seniors who have paid into a system for their entire working lives that we don’t care what happens to them,” Huckabee, in New Hampshire for the first time since April, told WMUR.com.

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Huckabee was among six candidates who spoke about affordable housing at a summit at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Afterwards, the Republican told WMUR.com: “It is appalling. It is unacceptable that we would ever treat Social Security as though it is an entitlement or a welfare benefit. Nobody asked me whether I wanted to pay into Social Security or Medicare and I started working when I was 14 years old.

“They took it out of my stinking paycheck every time, and they told me if they took it out that it would be there for me when I became 65,” he said.

“Now they’re going to tell me when I get there, ‘Well, you’re going to have to work another 10 or 15 years.‘ Or they’re going to tell me, ‘You make too much money. We’re going to take it away from you altogether.’"

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said last week that a New Hampshire resident would “get over” cuts to Social Security, as he has proposed.

Huckabee did not directly comment on Kasich’s remark, but said, “This is an absolute absurdity. If Republicans want to make sure they lose absolutely every election, let’s go out there and tell people that we’re going to steal from them and lie to them and take Social Security benefits and cut them."

“We need to protect not just the benefits, but also the integrity of our own government which made promises to people."

“To tell people to get over it? Congress is about to get a pay raise in January. Social Security and Medicare recipients are about to get a gut punch. There’s no cost-of-living for them. The attitude of Washington has been, more soup for us, no soup for you.”

Huckabee proposed growing the economy and changing how Social Security is funded. He noted that fewer people work for traditional paychecks and more people work “off the books.”

“You decrease the number of people paying into the system, but you have 10,000 people a day who are retiring and getting into the system, so you have a larger funnel going out than the funnel that’s going in, and you don’t have to be an economist to understand that doesn’t work,” Huckabee said.

"The formula to fix it is to grow the economy, get people to work again, and make sure that everybody is paying in at the pay-in level. But let’s not scare people who have worked for 50 or 60 years and tell them you are going to pull the rug out from under them now that they’ve had all this money taken out of their paychecks."

“This is an involuntary program,” Huckabee said. “It’s not welfare. People paid that money. It was their money out of their paychecks.

“Don’t tell me now that you’re going to take it away from me because the government screwed up. I’d say to people in Congress, ‘You get over it. You get over the fact that you’ve screwed this country. You spent money you didn’t have. You took money from people and spent it on things that didn’t have to do with Social Security and Medicare.”